Astronauts utilize gloves in space operations. A background paper on glove development for aerospace applications is "Development of Higher Operating Pressure Extra Vehicular Space Suit and Glove Assemblies", SAE Technical Paper 881102, 18th Intersociety Conference on Environmental System, San Francisco, Calif. Jul. 11-13, 1988, authored by Joseph J. Kosmo, John Bassick and Phil Spampinato. Glove designs and configurations have evolved as described in the above identified paper and there is a continuing effort in search of a glove construction which will have a minimal effect upon dexterity, is lightweight, durable and flexible and will operate over a wide temperature range. In addition to operational gloves there are also thermal micrometeoroid garment covergloves for extravehicular activity operations.
As noted in the above paper it is desirable to enhance the grasp capability of the palm area of a glove used in space operations. Palm grasp capability in a glove is necessary since performance in a space operation centers about the ability of a crew member to grasp and manipulate tools or objects. For one reason or another in any number of glove constructions, it is not possible to enhance the palm gripping surface of a glove simply by molding a friction type surface in the palm area of a glove. Consequently, such space type gloves and other similar types of gloves require some type of friction or gripping surface in the palm area.